Despite cold, crowds line sidewalk for 29th annual holiday parade

The 29th annual Fall River Children’s Holiday Parade kicked off at 1 p.m. Saturday. It proceeded, on a cold and sunny day, from Kennedy Park to Government Center. Organizers say it is the largest parade for children in all of New England.

It was her first parade, but Sa-Mya Figueroa-Santana, 4, knew what she liked: big balloons.

When Spot the Dog, a 30-foot inflatable beagle, bounced by, Sa-Mya clapped and waved. She also liked music and dancing to the party bands performing on flatbed trailers.

But when fire sirens sounded, she turned to her teenage sister, Ziahu Santana, and hid her face against her sister’s legs.

“She doesn’t like noise, but she likes everything else," said Lynne Williams, a friend.

With that, Sa-Mya was not alone.

The 29th annual Fall River Children’s Holiday Parade kicked off at 1 p.m. Saturday. It proceeded, on a cold and sunny day, from Kennedy Park to Government Center. Organizers say it is the largest parade for children in all of New England.

More than 10,000 people lined South Main Street, Deputy Police Chief Charles Cullen said. One person was taken to the hospital after falling from a float before the parade started. There were no other incidents, Cullen said.

There were 30 floats, countless bands and a procession of balloons — the beagle, elves, Oscar the Grouch and Elmo.

Elmo was a hit. Leah Medeiros, 3, was with her grandfather, Evaristo Lopez, sitting on his shoulders when Elmo came into view.

Elmo was tall enough to look into the third-floor windows at the Academy Building.

She reached out her hand.

“Hi, Elmo,” she said. Then she said it again, and again, and again.

“She does love her Elmo,” Lopez said.

Ahmiaha Madeira, 3, and De-Mariaya Carabello, 5, sat in the bleachers at Government Center with their mother, Ann Marie Madeira. Both girls shivered slightly as they nursed hot chocolate and denied they were cold.

They sat up when into view came the Pirouette Dance Academy, a company of slightly older girls in jackets and hats of royal blue, spinning to the music being played.

“They love this,” Ann Marie Madeira said.

As the Pirouette performers danced in the cold with impossible ease, the pipers and drummers of the Ancient Order of Hibernians marched in kilts, flashing red knees.

Girls from Envy Gymnastics passed by, doing cartwheels in the street. The Flint Neighborhood Association had a truck pulling a live band on its flatbed trailer.

Students from several schools marched or waved as they rode by on floats. Joseph Sousa, 5, was part of the contingent from the Silvia School. When he finished the parade, he got to watch the other marchers with his mother, Sandra DaSilva.

“I like the marching, it was better,” he said. “But it was cold, no matter what you did.”